There will be several new faces on the grid in Japan for next Sunday’s 6th round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Fuji, as well as some familiar faces in different cars.
In LMP1 we welcome back Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima in the No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid to boost Toyota Racing’s battle with Audi, and also say hello again to Andrea Belicchi in the No.12 Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 Coupé-Toyota. Italian Belicchi will be partnering Mathias Beche in the LMP1 Privateer entry as both Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost will be racing in the USA.
Shinji Nakano is one of six Japanese drivers in the LMP2 category, and will drive alongside Tor Graves and James Walker in the No.25 Delta-ADR ORECA 03 Nissan. Nakano is well known to the team having driven with them at the 6 Hours of Fuji last year and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nissan Global Ambassador, Keiko Ihara, rejoins Jacques Nicolet in the OAK Racing’s No.45 Morgan Nissan and will be with the French team now until the end of the season.
The two new entries to LMP2 include Gainer International’s No.27 Zytek Z11SN-Nissan with its Japanese-Swedish line up of Katsuyuki Hiranaka , Masayuki Ueda and Bjorn Wirdheim. The Swede most recently appeared in the FIA WEC for Greaves Motorsport in the 6 Hours of São Paulo. The two Japanese stars of Super GT will be bringing valuable Fuji experience to the team which is making its debut in the WEC. KCMG is making its third appearance in the World Endurance Championship and introduces three new names: Richard Bradley, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tsugio Matsuda. The Singapore-based Bradley was Formula BMW Pacific Champion and he and both his team mates have a huge bank of FIS knowledge from their years in Japanese F3 and Super GT.
In LMGTE Pro there are no new names to become familiar with, the line ups being explained in the recent news story HERE but, in LMGTE Am, the recent rule changes which require each car to include two Silver or Bronze-rated drivers means there are several changes to line ups, with the entry list now being complete.
Aside from the addition of Brazilian superstar Bruno Senna (No.95 Vantage V8) and 2013 British GT runner-up Jonathan Adam (No.96 Vantage V8) to Aston Martin Racing’s Am line up, Finnish driver Markus Palttala is set to join the No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR alongside the car’s usual duo of Jean-Karl Vernay and Raymond Narac.
As championship battles hot up, the pressure is on new and familiar faces alike, with fans worldwide undoubtedly benefitting from some great racing ahead!
Fiona Miller
Photo: Toyota Racing's Kazuki Nakajima and Audi Sport Team Joest's Andre Lotterer are set to reprise their rivalry in the 6 Hours of Fuji, Japan.
